Ruckus Regroups

While this weekend’s anti-“globalism” protests in Washington were a bust for left-wing activists, ignored by a nation with more important concerns, their fringe crusade against free markets and consumer freedom wears on. The Ruckus Society, “a group of left-wing protesters who have taught scores of other activists how to blockade police, hang banners off buildings and generally monkey with the ‘corporate machine'” according to The San Jose Mercury News, has scheduled a “training camp” for June 24 to July 2 in California to train activist in cyberwar — its first camp devoted to showing extremists “how to use the most modern technology to fight the world’s capitalist overlords.”

Ruckus camps primarily teach wannabe anarchists “police confrontation strategies,” “street blockades,” and “urban climbing and rappelling,” among other things. Ruckus activists are generally known for wearing masks, assuming aliases, and giving false names to arresting police officers, and the organization has been linked to the violent “Black Bloc” that smashed up stores, restaurants, and private property during demonstrations in Seattle, Washington, Genoa, and Montreal, and which tried to disrupt the 2001 presidential inauguration. [For a full profile on the Ruckus Society, visit ActivistCash.com.]